Tuesday, February 05, 2008

The worst designed telephone in the world

OK, that might be an exaggeration, but the Doro Matra 5035 suffers from a bang-your-head-against-the-wall design fault. Here's the phone:

The phone includes an answering machine which has two indicators: a flashing red light and a small LCD US-style letter box symbol. Here's what the indicator looks like:

Great, very clear. Except... it's on the back of the phone and when the phone is in its cradle it is completely hidden from view. So hidden, in fact, that even in a darkened room the red light is invisible.

Which means you have to pick the phone up every time to see if someone left a message. As for the LCD message waiting indicator, it's miniscule, there's no LCD backlight and the LCD is deeply recessed in the phone meaning that even ambient light is blocked from making it easier to see the indicator. In fact, the LCD is so useless that you might as well pick up the phone to see the flashing indicator on the back.

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